WASHINGTON — FBI director nominee Kash Patel informed lawmakers throughout his Thursday affirmation listening to that the variety of US drug deaths, homicides and rapes must be halved — whereas disregarding Democratic critics by saying that “ticking off some folks” was proof of a job properly achieved.
The Lengthy Island native pledged to “ensure we don’t have 100,000 rapes on this nation subsequent yr, ensure we don’t have 100,000 drug overdoses from Chinese language fentanyl and Mexican heroin, and ensure we don’t have 17,000 homicides.”
Patel, 44, stated “these numbers must be lower in half instantly, and the public will regain belief within the FBI and regulation enforcement.”
The nominee largely averted taking the bait of political opponents on the Senate Judiciary Committee, whereas making a candid evaluation of his foes to Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.)
“You’ve made lots of people mad, haven’t you?” Kennedy requested Patel, a former congressional, protection and intelligence official identified for propagating the speculation of “deep state” bias towards President Trump throughout his first time period.
“It appears so, senator,” Patel concurred.
“You assume possibly you made the suitable folks mad?” Kennedy adopted up, to chuckles within the viewers.
“As my FBI brokers, the brick brokers informed me, after I was operating circumstances with them throughout this nation and around the globe, when you’re not ticking off some folks, you’re not doing all of your job proper,” Patel stated.
Kennedy then pushed again on Democrats who had branded Patel a “conspiracy theorist.”
“Sounds to me like we have to get some new conspiracy theories as a result of all of the previous ones turned out to be true” the senator stated. “Conspiracy theorists are up one thing like 37-0.”
Patel pledged to Kennedy that he wouldn’t use the FBI to go after Democrats — after Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence was raided in 2022 to get well nationwide safety paperwork and after since-departed bureau leaders have been caught swapping anti-Trump messages throughout a leaky probe of whether or not the Republican illegally colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.
“When reforming the FBI and Justice Division, ‘two wrongs don’t make a proper, however they do make it even’ is the flawed method, isn’t it?” Kennedy requested.
“That’s right,” Patel replied.
A few of Trump’s supporters, together with White Home funds director nominee Russ Vought, have advocated for the FBI to be “abolished,” however Patel insisted “98% of the FBI is brave, apolitical warriors of justice.
“They only want higher management,” he added.
Patel fended off Democratic assaults largely with out fireworks — distancing himself from his connection to circulating a recording of jailed Capitol riot contributors singing collectively and referring senators to his monetary disclosures with out delving into them.
Patel, who labored 12 years as a public defender in Florida earlier than serving within the Justice Division as a trial legal professional from 2014 to 2017, obtained reward from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) for his views on Fourth Modification protections for American data.
He slammed congressional Democrats for unleashing a barrage of abuse towards him, together with a message that referred to as him “a detestable sand n—– who had no proper being on this nation.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) tried to lean into Patel for at one level saying that the FBI headquarters “must be shut down and reopened as a Museum of the Deep State.”
“If the most effective assaults on me are going to be false accusations and grotesque mischaracterizations, the one factor this physique is doing is defeating the credibility of the women and men on the FBI,” he fired again.
“I stood with them, right here on this nation, in each theater of struggle we’ve, I used to be on the bottom in service to this nation. And any accusations leveled towards me that I might one way or the other put political bias earlier than the Structure are grotesquely unfair.”
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